Martin Freeman Has Defended His Controversial Jenna Ortega Movie By Insisting It's "Grown-Up And Nuanced"

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"Like, that's the point. You're not supposed to like the character or their situation," another user agreed. "This movie is about a student and a teacher, of course there's an age gap, and Freeman is saying you're not supposed to approve of that, either. All films and novels aren't supposed to be about perfect people in ideal situations, that's not the point of them. They're not insisting you approve, they're depicting nuanced situations where people are acting inappropriately."

But others argued that what Martin said glossed over the broader issue with the film, with one critic pointing out: "if you actually watched the movie, then you'd know it's jenna's character that 'seduces' this poor unassuming english teacher and tries to 'ruin his life' which is what makes the movie gross. it's not bc it depicts an age gap relationship, it's bc the teenage girl is depicted as having all the power and agency in this dynamic which is seriously damaging for real life cases of teachers grooming their students."

"He is correct that obviously the movie wasn't saying it was perfectly fine for an adult man to be with a teenage girl and if people were criticising the movie for that then they are at best misinformed and at worst willfully obtuse," somebody else reasoned. "Most of the criticism of the movie I came across was focused much more on the 'poor innocent adult man is harrassed by EVIL teenage girl' trope and I can't help wondering if his response to the criticism, also, is at best misinformed and at worst willfully obtuse."